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Posts for: June, 2019

Since the early Roman times, couples have prized the month of June as the most favorable time to exchange their marriage vows. If you and your betrothed are planning a June wedding this season, you no doubt want everything to be beautiful. That would include your smile—and with the appropriate techniques we can help you make it as bright and attractive as possible.

Here are 5 ways to a more attractive wedding day smile.

Dental Cleaning and Teeth Whitening. A routine dental cleaning right before the ceremony can remove stains and dental plaque that dull your teeth's appearance. For an added level of brightness, we can also whiten your teeth in time for your big day.

Repairing defects with bonding. Do you have a chipped tooth, or a broken or discolored filling? We may be able to repair minor defects like these in a single visit by bonding lifelike dental materials directly to the tooth. We color-match and sculpt these materials so that they blend seamlessly with your natural teeth.

Advanced enhancements. In whatever ways your teeth may be flawed, there are dental solutions to transform your smile. We can correct minor to moderate chips, stains or slight gaps with porcelain veneers that cover the teeth's visible surface. We can cap a viable but unsightly tooth with a life-like crown. Missing teeth? A fixed bridge or dental implants could restore them like new.

Plastic gum surgery. Teeth may be the stars of your smile, but your gums are the supporting cast. Smiles with too much of the gums showing can be corrected through various techniques, including periodontal plastic surgery that reshapes the gums and can help the teeth appear more prominent.

Orthodontics. The original "smile transformer," braces and other orthodontic methods move misaligned teeth to better positions. Not only can orthodontic treatment result in a more attractive appearance, it can improve overall dental health.

You have an array of options for enhancing your wedding day smile, and we're more than happy to help you develop an individualized treatment plan. One caveat, though: some of these techniques could take weeks or months to complete, so don't delay!

Dental implants have soared in popularity thanks to their life-likeness, functionality and durability. But these prized qualities have also created an ironic downside—people are much more likely to replace a tooth with an implant rather than go through the time and effort to preserve it.

We say downside because even though an implant is as close to a real tooth as we can now achieve in dentistry, it still can't rival the real thing. It's usually in your long-term health interest to save a tooth if reasonably possible. And, there are effective ways to do so.

Most dental problems arise from two common oral diseases. One is tooth decay, caused by contact with acid produced by bacteria living in dental plaque. We can often minimize the damage by treating the early cavities decay can create. But if we don't treat it in time, the decay can advance into the tooth's pulp chamber, putting the tooth in danger of loss.

We can intervene, though, using root canal therapy, in which we drill into the tooth to access its interior. We clean out the decayed tooth structure, remove the diseased pulp tissue and fill the empty chamber and root canals to seal the tooth and later crown it to further protect it from re-infection.

Periodontal (gum) disease also begins with bacteria, but in this case the infection is in the gum tissues. Over time the ensuing inflammation locks into battle with the plaque-fueled infection. This stalemate ultimately weakens gum attachment, the roots and supporting bone that can also increases risk for tooth loss.

We can stop a gum infection through a variety of techniques, all following a similar principle—completely removing any accumulated plaque and tartar from the teeth and gums. This stops the infection and starts the process of gum and bone healing.

You should be under no illusions that either of these approaches will be easy. Advanced tooth decay can be complex and often require the skills of an endodontist (a specialist in root canals). Likewise, gum disease may require surgical intervention. But even with these difficulties, it's usually worth it to your dental health to consider saving your tooth first before you replace it with an implant.

Ask any kid and they'll tell you just how valuable "baby" teeth really are—out of the mouth, of course, and under their pillow awaiting a transaction with the Tooth Fairy. But there's more to them than their value on the Fairy Exchange Market—they play a critical role in future dental health.

Primary teeth provide the same kind of dental function as their future replacements. Children weaned from nursing can now eat solid food. They provide contact points for the tongue as a child learns to speak. And they play a role socially, as children with a "toothsome" smile begin to look more like what they will become when they're fully mature.

But primary teeth also serve as guides for the permanent teeth that will follow. As a future tooth develops below the gum line, the primary tooth preserves the space in which it will erupt. Otherwise, the space can be taken over by other teeth. This crowds out the intended tooth, which may erupt out of position or remain impacted below the gum line.

In either case, the situation could create a poor bite (malocclusion) that can be quite costly to correct. But if we can preserve a primary tooth on the verge of premature loss, we may be able to reduce the impact of a developing malocclusion or even prevent it.

We can help primary teeth last for their intended lifespan by preventing tooth decay with daily oral hygiene or clinically-applied sealants and topical fluoride. If they do become infected, it may be worth the effort to preserve them using procedures similar to a root canal treatment.

If a tooth can't be preserved, then we can try to reserve the empty space for the future tooth. One way is a space maintainer, which is a stiff wire loop attached to metal band bonded around an adjacent tooth. This keeps other teeth from drifting into the space until the permanent tooth is ready to erupt, at which time we can remove the appliance.

Your child may be anxious to get another tooth to put under their pillow. But helping that primary tooth go the distance will be more than worth it for their future dental health.